;i;:,i!;i;;,|ii'.:.;i:.:iV 




SONGS QF THE 



RIEMAN BAXLEY 






Book Jaa^o: 



CopghtN^. 



I3.n^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Songs of the Stars 

By 

Isaac Rieman Baxley 

Author of 

'The Temple of Alanthur," "The Prophet,' 

"Songs of the Spirit," "Beyond the 

Bank of Mist." 






Pacific Press Publishing Company 

Mountain View, California 

1904 






lUBRAHYuf CONSSESS 
Iwu Copies HeceJveo 

DEC 12 a904 

QopyriiifH tntry 
'M'irf/' 3,3 f9o'4- 
OUSS C^ XXc. No; 

I COHY 6. 

6>-g-^ -■ II I I II I 



Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1904, 

Bv Isaac Rieman Baxlky 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 



DEDICATION 



To whom? 
To those who dwell among the Stars, and 
gaze 
Steadfast at us, as into summer nights, 
We bring our lamp of glory, and always 
Stand there quiescent in the summer's 
lights — 

To them. 



CONTENTS 



Dedication 3 

The Star 7 

The Earth-Song g 

The Country of the Star 1 12 

Farewell of the Earth to Her Sons 17 

The Poets Praising Earth 21 

The Singer .22 

Song of the Poet 26 

The Dream 30 

The Dreamers 36 

The Dream Song 41 

Dancing Stars 43 

Song of the Islands in the Sea 44 

Vox Humana 50 

The Vanished Song 52 



SONGS OF THE STARS 



THE STAR 



Because my seas are wide, and I 
Whirl through a Planet-painted sky, 
Because I dare to come and go 
Through endlessness, and overflow 
Of passion's still unfigured glow; 
Because the eyes of men shall be 
But where I take them carefully. 
The fate of men be fixed, and cast 
Wherever path of mine is passed. 
All-helpless tenants of my day 
Fade as my figure shrinks away; 
Because I dance, and swim, and be 
What all men cling to passionately- 
Upbraiding in their jealousy; 
Because I bind them in my keep. 
And hear them wail, and see them weep, 
And still with heartless vigor run 
My race immortal with the Sun, 
What challenger shall rise and say 
The Earth is fretful on her way? 



8 , SONGS OF THE STARS 

I laugh when comes the little cry 

Of trouble-mad mortality: 

What! shall I bear thee, and invest 

My body for thy joy and zest; 

My beauty braid, and lips declare 

For thee the lullabies of air; 

My potions mix, for thee distil 

Elixirs the starred spaces fill; 

Shall I with tireless footsteps turn 

Round the vast plains where planets burn. 

Draw past the brilliant gazing globes 

Of intense Suns my clouds and robes; 

Sustain thee when the unknown gales 

Drive into Heavenly climes and vales — 

Shall I do this, and then dare be 

Rebellious to my Sovereignty? 

Go then ; forsake my wayward will ; 
If thou'rt a conqueror, go — fulfil 
In some far Planet's starry eyes 
The madness of thy destinies. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 

THE EARTH-SONG 



Led out on the ripples of laughter and light 
I am Bride of the Heavens, and my Lord 
is the Sun; 

tell me not other ones shine in his sight, 

I know that his passion possesses but one. 

1 know that he burns, that his eyes are con- 

sumed 
With a longing for me, that the tale of 
his days 
Is warmed with the breath of his lips, that 
perfumed 
Flies out to my bosom, is gathered and 
stays. 

I know that his passion, through plentiful 
years. 
Did beset me, I know that the storm of his 
heart 
Was hot in the flames of his failures and fears 
To break through the distance, and draw 
me apart. 

O Lord of my longing, at last in my eyes 
Is the purple of passion ; O Star of the Day 



lO SONGS OF THE STARS 

Forever I blush when the wind of surprise 
Drives the curtain of darkness that cloaks 
thee away. 

Forever the lilies and roses arise 
Where the touch of thy tenderness pressed 
me and passed, 
Forever the face of the Earth justifies 
The caress of caresses on her heart was the 
last. 

No Planet I fear, for I braid in my hair 
Their delicate lusters, and gleam in the 
gems 
Of an infinite Heaven as one who walked 
there 
With garments that gathered the Stars to 
their hems. 

And the Lord of my conquest is leading 
me on, 
Through the depths of the midnight and 
azure of day. 
Far out where the footsteps of other Stars 
run. 
And the flash of their circlings breaks out 
into play. 



SONGS OF THE STARS II 

Where the Sisters of Heaven revolve in their 
twains, 
And the dials of Heaven point over the true 
Unchangeable grace where the Planets in 
plains 
Superbly shine out for their consorts to 
view. 

There I go, and never my Sovereign denies, 

Inconstant, his presence, as planting his 

feet 

Serenely on paths of his far-reaching eyes, 

He watches the globes where they glitter 

and meet. 

The gales of the ether blow out of their home. 

Delightful we float into space and away, 
O Lord of my loving, where thou callest 1 
come. 
What bond hath the Earth could encom- 
pass her stay! 



12 SONGS OF THE STARS 

THE COUNTRY OF THE STAR 



And still my dwellers find me sweet, 
Still follow where my fearless feet 
Find footfall into vacant ways 
That my bright presence first betrays. 
Through the new fields of days to be 
I float in azure subtlety, 
And, with the instincts of a maid, 
Through Heaven I find the placid shade, 
Hiding a face delight makes fair, 
And plunge to cool its gladness there. 
The words of many a distant sphere 
Drift into time, and catch my ear, 
And many a Sister signals me 
With gesture of exposed beauty 
Across the light of many a Sea. 
The maids of Heaven have many a phase 
Of radiance in their sparkling ways. 
And many a Song of subtle shade 
Is in the Heavenly meadows played. 
In globes of various splendor runs 
Th' unequal ardor of the Suns; 
Resplendent in the morning air 
Flings o'er the Stars its brilliant glare 
The face of him who wakes to dare. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 1 3 

I on that glittering ancestry 
Gaze as a Goddess equally; 
No matter what delightful air 
Fanned from the glades of anywhere, — 
Blown from its lair of loveliness, 
Witching the keep of lost duress, — 
Flows in mysterious breezes where 
Some figure trails her wondrous hair; 
No matter how the Stars entwine 
Tiaras where their signets shine, 
And circle other names than mine. 
Nor if the Lord of some lost way 
Should blaze with sudden ecstasy. 
And dash the ardor of his eyes 
Where some slow watcher waiting flies; 
Nor matter if a thousand dyes 
Mix where the light impassioned lies 
Upon some Planet splendidly — 
Still is this Heaven a home for me! 
O what resistless sense to be 
Swung like a signal out at sea, 
No dread of wave, nor gloom, nor gale, 
Nor know no tumult to assail 
Angelic wings that safely cleave 
Whatever winds they find and leave. 
Whatever course of marvelous Sun 



14 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Down the swift glades of Time be run, 

Whatever answering image lies 

When conquest turns his burning eyes, 

What shape, what fragment, what decree 

Breaks from that cloud Eternity, 

All is of them, and all of me. 

I am no Star to wander on 

Undone, dissevered, and alone; 

Far on the fringe of all I see 

Arranged in startling panoply. 

Far in the realms where grandeur earns 

Wages of excellence, and burns 

Perfervid in the glowing urns; — 

For where the depths of many dyes 

Flash into their intricacies. 

And far wherever newness be 

Is still the flame that floats with me. 

My heart is as a beacon lit. 

And I, impassioned, look from it; 

I love the Heavens and starry eyes 

That fathom many mysteries; 

I love the Seas, where changing swim 

Shadows of floating seraphim. 

The keen, delicious words they sing 

Thrill through myself and everything. 

Remember that we Worlds of bliss 



SONGS OF THE STARS 1 5 

Have most exquisite consciousness; 

Children of pain keep many sighs 

Surrounding where their trouble lies; 

Mortals that hovering come and go 

Over my heart in ceaseless flow — 

Forever with low-looking eyes — 

Keep not our splendid sympathies. 

But I, I yearn for every Star 

In all the Worlds that were and are. 

Where are the dazzling Worlds that swim 

With beauty bubbling to the brim? 

Where the translucent Globes that fly 

Through airs that are a rhapsody, 

And clouds that can not sink and die? 

Where are the Seas that flash and foam 

On confines of resplendent home 

And, vanquished, beautiful become? 

Where are the Suns suddenly rise 

Bent on perfect subtleties 

And heat of every new emprise? 

Wherever they, my heart aware 

Of all that makes their purpose fair 

Throbs with forever gazing there! 

Like a sweet Island, swung astream, 

I float in Heaven, where pass and gleam 



1 6 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Currents and cargoes constantly, 

Swept in the winds of melody. 

When in the lull of things I rest, 

Curtained and couched, a favored guest. 

And midnight-stars light up the dream 

That lies in shadow out between 

Th' exquisite things that are, and seem, 

O then the passion and delight 

Of a pure Planet in the sight 

Of Stars whose very number makes 

A melody, and Time that takes 

Mysterious look of Infinite — 

O then the fate of Earth is fair. 

And cool the clouds that keep her there! 



SONGS OF THE STARS 

FAREWELL OF THE EARTH 

TO HER SONS 



Toll slow — toll slow — 

O let the chimes go 
Far out from my heart with solemn flow, 

For the days of the Star 

Do vanish, and are 
Where slumber and silence their darkness 
bestow. 

For the bells of the Heavens are hanging in 

spheres 
That toll to the temper of sorrow and tears. 
For the Stars of the Heavens are misty with 

pain 
That the light of the Earth lies low in the 

wane. 
And the Watchers of Heaven, who heard as 

they passed 
Call her name where forever they found her 

at last. 
On they fly through the infinite shadows in 

vain. 
For the face of the Earth is forgotten again — 
And the Legend of Earth sleeps sound with 

the slain. 



1 8 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Toll low — toll low — 

O let the light go 
With lingering looks on my face and slow, 

For the colors that fade 

From my visage were made 
Where the beautiful things of the past over- 
flow. 

O the days that the Earth in her gladness 

sped by 
Where the pathways of Heaven are fast in 

the sky, 
And the nights when the Earth went aslum- 

bering soon 
Because of the fancies that fell from the 

Moon, 
And the dusk of her changing, the dusk and 

delay 
When the Songs of the Sunset swept out with 

the day, 
And the voices of evening in tremor became 
The heralds to tell all the Stars of her name, 
O the conquest of Earth, O what charm had 

decay 
To steal all the strength of her pleasures 

away. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 1 9 

But swing the chimes low, 

And let the words go 
With the slant of the bells that are heavy 
and slow, 

For the bursts of my sighs 

Where these sorrows arise 
Shake the symbols of sadness that tremble 

to know. 

There were voices of many that girdled in 
pride 

All the zones of the earth; lo the Singers all 
died; 

Lo the quest of the happy, and the things of 
the gay 

Dropped out into darkness and echoed away; 

They have gone; whither went all the change- 
able throng 

That once claimed the Earth with their con- 
quest and song, 

Did they take not the secret to me did belong? 

Did they lean on my bosom, luxurious guest. 
And steal out the perfume exhaled from my 

breast? 
Did they breathe out their love with a tumult 

of sighs 



20 SONGS OF THE STARS 

That fell with the darkness of rain from my 

eyes? 
While I slept did they dally, and vanquish the 

morn, 
Have they fled with my favor, and laugh they 

in scorn — 
Is the Earth all alone — do the Stars never 

mourn? 

Ring low — ring low — 

O let the tones go 
Out into the ether with musical flow. 

For I perish, but still 

Chance melody will 
Break over the Heavens to let the Stars know. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 21 

THE POETS PRAISING EARTH 

My Poets people Isles of Sea, 

And walk the shores, and sing to me; 

They watch the waters, where the haze 

Falls out from Heaven, and floating stays, 

And, with ecstatic fears that he 

Should be the Singer loved of me, 

Each strikes the chords he keenest plays. 

They chant, and I, begemmed with Song, 

Bear the blue Islands lightly on, 

I smooth the Sea, and bring its end 

Gently to them, whose songs extend. 

And space floats on, and, like a flower 

Dew-hung with passion's passing hour, 

I quiver with suppressed delight, 

Stirred by the winds that choose the Night, 

And, Music making time in me, 

I brush the dewdrops in the Sea, 

Too happy rise, calling the Day, 

And Songs and Singers drift away! 



22 SONGS OF THE STARS 

THE SINGER 



So, from my caverns in the air 

I watched him when he stopped and sang; 
I grasped the clouds and held them there, 

And stole the music while it rang. 

If some wild Star a tremor made 

I stirred the clouds and hid the spark, 

While the swift music stronger played 

I shut the Heavens, and kept them dark. 

What need have I of Singer sweet. 
My ears are dead to pipes and song. 

My wish is where the distant meet. 
And vast the shades where I belong. 

Do 1 stretch on the clouds and dream. 

Tossed in the tumult of the air. 
To hear the sound of some small theme 

Strike on the apparitions there? 

I turned the shadow of my eyes 

And made the atmosphere a gloom, 

I spread my robes on broken skies. 

And swept them to their midnight home. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 23 

I lashed the feeble Moon away 

And scorned her crescent flickering, 

I choked the Wind-words with dismay 
And asked my Singer then to sing. 

And when his lips, with sorrow bent. 
Dropped somber singing, plaintively, 

From out the rhythm as it went, 
I, following, snatched the melody. 

I stole the beauty, and the pain 
Rang in its shapeless manner on; 

I drew the dye and left the stain 
To stamp the making of his Song. 

Then stood he still : his singing sank 
To senseless words, said heavily. 

Still with the thirst of rage I drank 
The last drop of its harmony. 

And still I tossed the music back 
Behind me, to some summer Isles, 

But him I harassed in the black 
Shadows I laid in long defiles. 

O it was joy to see him stand; 
I have a thousand men to lead, 



24 SONGS OF THE STARS 

I Stormed the Heavens from land to land 
For him, and whirled the winds with speed. 

With wraiths of wrath I filled the dome 

Of all my vault, Immensity, 
I shut the lights about my home, 

And smote the Singer angrily. 

I drove the Winds that wait for me 
Round their fierce course to gather in 

Old echoes I had kept to be 

Sounds of the Songs he did begin. 

With scorn I scattered them below. 
They fell incessant, like the rain 

Of some fresh weeping, and did grow, 
Watered by them, the sights of pain. 

I left him; for myself repose 

Drew from the Stars he could not see: 
I slept in Heaven, and when arose 

The Sun, misled him craftily. 

I drew the glittering Orb away 

And rolled him down on pleasant plain, 

Content was at the bridle way, 

And beauty drove the treacherous twain. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 2^ 

I gave the Sun delight and ease, 
And he, the wily Monarch, smiled 

And slacked the pace, and took the peace, 
And looked not for his lands exiled. 

But I to savage brooding turned, 
And laid my hands on heavy knees 

Till the low clouds with rancor churned 
Distempered through the dripping trees. 

There is a terror of the air, 

A darkness of the very Orb, 
There is a time when touch is where 

It feels a frightened silence throb. 

And he was there: I poured the dye 
Of terrible temper on the world. 

And tore the vestiges of sky 

From the scared patches where they 
whirled. 

And sat me down, nearly content; 

These were the things I chose to give; 
Hark! little sound that shivering went 

Away, wast thou the last to leave? 



26 SONGS OF THE STARS 

SONG OF THE POET 



Was ever my Soul on the swell of the ether? 

And did it descend in the circle of Mars? 
O why on my lips are the Songs of a believer, 

And why through my brain is the dance 
of the Stars? 

Was it I, of a sudden, from somewhere de- 
scended. 
Who fell, as a Planet unceasingly swings. 
And flies with her magical motion extended, 
And clings with her feet to the quivering 
strings? 

Ah! never! the music was played or was 
spoken; 
Went into the drift of the ether, and there 
Lies out on the edges of Heaven all broken. 
And lies on my lips but the earth — and de- 
spair! 

But the magnets of Heaven, ever busy in 
winding 
All the jewels of Heaven in glitter and 
play, 



SONGS OF THE STARS 27 

Are they still? O why will they never be 
finding 
The flash of the Earth-Star and bear it 
away? 

Away and away with the wings of the mid- 
night, 
That carry the Stars when their musical 
rounds 
Flash into the keys, and pull them in delight 
Out over the ether in exquisite sounds. 

For the world is fast, and it swings and swings 
And seeks for the sensitive, quivering 

strings — 
And almost stops till the melody rings. 

Be still! I am a Poet mad; 

With tongue of torment, and a name 

Struck from the World it should have had, 

And doubt, and wretchedness, and flame 

Of hatred for the things that give 

Delight to people where I live. 

With heart of Song, and lips that bleed 

Because they tear the terrible weed 

Of rottenness, and bitter, sad 

Are all the sounds I ever had. 



28 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Why can I never stop and tear 

The thing within that's always there 

And hurl it out into the air? 

If with a savage World I stood 

Once in a savage solitude; 

Once never heard within my heart 

Mysterious music plays its part; 

Knew that I was a crime within, 

And heard my lips their tales begin; 

O if I could look out and see 

The World in storm, and then in me 

Heard the same sound of misery — 

If once the lyre snapped in my heart, 

could my lips then learn their part? 

1 hate to be something within 
That is as gentle as a Star 
Dipped where the sea and air begin, 
That will not move from where they are. 
That keeps by Heaven and keeps by land- 
And is what Angels understand — 

And then with level lips that close 
Determined over all that flows 
From some imagined World to me, 
Stand in a vexed World sullenly — 
And vex it still with obstinacy. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 29 

I am a Poet mad, with tongue 

That knows the speech of Heaven, and smote 

Last night in Heaven, as Angels sung 

The secrets of my lips, and wrote 

Words on the echoes of their air. 

And was, O bliss, a Poet there! 

It was the sounds of slumbering, 

This is the World, I can not sing: 

There's nothing overhead, the Sky 

Gleams with a rancorous subtlety; 

There's not a Star dares gird its dance. 

No Planet springs her bold entrance, 

Shame on their faces! they refuse! 

Could Beauty ever give excuse? 

Ah! Wind and Cloud, I know where none, 

Not even you, will dare to come, 

A gulf that lies stretched openly — 

Refusing nothing — O the Sea! 

My heart sinks with its sounds in thee! 

But the World floats on, and swings and 
swings. 

And waits for the silver sound of the strings — 

And my Heart holds tight, and to it clings. 

********* 



30 SONGS OF THE STARS 

I wept, and the soft rain of tears 

Washed through the darkness at my feet, 
And he, the passionate Singer, hears 

My heart-throbs in their hurried beat. 

Slowly the burdened clouds I break 
In pieces, and, with pallid face. 

One after one of the Stars I take 
And burnish in its glittering place. 



THE DREAM 



It may be that the things that live 

By some exceeding subtle Star 

Swept to the Planet where I stayed. 

And drew me, with words they made 

Over a new unfinished bar, 

Out to their homes, where Music hung 

In air — and down the Stars distinctly rung. 

Or was it that a Spirit dyed 
The mists of morn, and overlaid 
The edge of Earth, and rolled the tide 
For once as other Worlds were made? 
And broke the sequence of the Sea, 



SONGS OF THE STARS 3 1 

And jarred the air with mystic time, 
And while it scattering came, he played 
The Songs of Stars and gave them me ? 

Stars where the cloud-heaps float in foam 

Of some peculiar light that will 

But scintillate, and keep its own 

Expression and its movement still; 

Where clouds love music, and exist 

Stretched sensitive upon the air. 

And things no Song of ours would dare 

From out the lips of Singers flow, 

And float in Heaven, and from them go — 

tell me, was it into these 
Extremely furnished harmonies 

I strayed, 
And listened while the music played — 
Or even did I hear it here 
Sound in the Earth's real atmosphere? 

1 know that Singers stretch their strings 
In dews of morn, and from the night 
Splash out their liquid murmurings, 
And dip their fingers in delight 
Through the cool things of Earth, and fling. 
There in the com.ing of the Day, 

What words he loves and bears away. 



32 SONGS OF THE STARS 

I know that ears are ever tuned 

To catch the sonnets of the Sun, 

And lips are begging nights that mooned 

Full-figured, waver in replies 

Fantastic things to following eyes — 

And he who sings exactly these 

Is Poet — with his mysteries. 

What care I though the Gates of Day, 
Swift moving with their golden bars 
Thrown wide on roads that bear way 
The Night, and Moon and thousand Stars- 
And there reflecting in the Sun 
Stand opening wide to every one — 
Should never pass me, and I lay 
Shut in by night, and dawn, and day. 
What care I if the Sentinel 
Should never know me, as, aflame 
With touches of the hastening Stars, 
And flying skirt of desperate Moon, 
He draws too close the Day and soon; 
Nor care I though his glorious eyes. 
Forever glittering in pursuit 
Of him who trails the dew-damp foot, 
Should sweep me with their vivid stare, 
And find me strange, and leave me there. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 33 

If I must barken as they go, 
The things that make me love them so, 
And watch them, when their fluttering hands 
Make signet of the signs they know 
To pass him where he nodding stands. 
The strange old Ward of Earth and Lands; — 
If I must catch the words of tune 
The Stars sing in the ring of Moon, 
To charm him as they drift away 
The thousandth time in face of Day, 
And with no trace themselves, betray; — 
The thousandth time if I must say 
Whatever words they're answering, 
Words of the kind he seems to know. 
To please him ere he let me go — 
Forgive him that did keep me so — 
And smite the lips he says shall flow, — 
Then through the shadows of the deep 
Sweep on, ye Stars, and let me keep 
Unhappy watch through Gates of Day 
While ye, ye Wanderers, steal away. 

Sometime some Maid of Heavenly race, 
Too eager for the purple deep, 
With laugh of parting, and a pace 
That speeds with print of fluttering feet 



34 SONGS OF THE STARS 

The edge of Morn, shall delicate 
Entangle with the speech she gives 
A word of Heaven, and I by fate 
Shall catch the country where she lives. 
And then, because I find out where 

A path is in the Clouds, and when 
Delight is summering through the air 
With Stars that hide themselves, and then, 
Far from the fretful eyes of Day, 
Disrobe and in the darkness play, — 
Ah! then, perhaps if I should be 
Chanced with th' impulsive company 
That press the gates and throng the ways 
Again where the old Warder stays. 
And looks and wonders while the Sun 
Keeps panting with the path he's on. 
Ah! then, perchance because my lips 
Have really breathed the midnight sky. 
And touched the faintest cloud that tips 
The fluttering Moon as she goes by. 
It might be that delight would make 
My memory willing, and I say 
The common words he loves to take 
When out he swings the Gates of Day. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 31; 

Keep on, ye Singers, who divide 
The quarters of the Earth, and string 
Content your chords, and play beside 
The ways the World is wandering. 
Shall I be with you, or away 
Risk in the shapes of Sky and Cloud 
The strangeness of my Songs, and stay 
Far from the courts where listeners crowd 
In circles where the Poets play? 
None answer: and I can not hear, 
When with a desperate, struggling wing 
I fan my Songs, and they appear 
Lost in the mighty murmuring 
That clouds the roads from Star to Star- 
Can only see them fade, and far 
Toss through the depths where terrors are. 

It is my secret, and — afraid 
To settle when your wings of peace 
Rest where the Earth has shores of ease, 
And where the Pipes of Songs have played 
So long the very Seas are said 
To sing the sands into a tune — 
I shall, with shadow of the Moon, 
And swift-winged Stars in fiery bands. 



36 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Vanish from where he always stands — 
That strange old Ward of Earth and Lands- 
Clamoring for words he understands. 



THE DREAMERS 



My love, why should we test the Earth? 

Why Folly bind us, and we cling 
Atempering on the edge of Mirth? 

Thou are not kind in answering. 

Why not? The Stars are very near. 
And we so lightly stationed wait, 

Come, shall we venture? Is it fear. 
Or loving, keeps thee hesitate? 

It is not I exacts delay. 

And thou, 'tis marvelous to me 

Feeling thy form in the Earth-winds sway, 
For the dead Earth is strange to thee. 

There are no airs around us near, 
Hist thee, my Love, lo everything 

Falls from the Stars, and faintly here 
Drops from the Stars their questioning. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 37 

Lo, all the gentle things have gone, 

The flutes have flown, ah! why not we? 

The Poets sang, and, one by one. 
Paced from the groves of Arcady. 

Look in their dead aisles through the breeze. 

There's echo only, and decay 
Stirs all the stoppage of the trees 

To blot the feet that went away. 

See! 'tis the treachery of the Sun 
To steal his touches on the eyes 

Of stark dead marbles, and to run 
His fingers through infirmities. 

Ah! when he's finished with the face 
Of Beauty, see how cold she lies, 

Her wet cheek moulded into place, 
That Earth should show her agonies. 

And still thou'rt constant? Here I chide 
And all th' unhappy signets show. 

And yon the Stars arise and glide 
In safety, and in pleasure glow. 

Yon are the Stars, and they go thronging, 
And we are here, with feet astill. 



38 SONGS OF THE STARS 

And watch them pass, and they go longing, 
And their old paths they upward fill. 

'Tis I — my fault — myself alone — 

So little, and dispassionate; 
My Song is only undertone. 

Thou wantest — I, unable, wait. 

Can I not change thee? Never yield 
Thee music that will move thy feet? 

And never take thee where the field 
Of midnight will the music meet? 

Come Love: the winds of ancient nights 
Strike on the Earth, and rise, and flow 

Mixed with still ancienter delights 

That struggle from their memory slow. 

Like an intense, mysterious air 
That startles, and becalms again. 

The households of the Planets there 
Open their doors, and close, and then — 

We look and listen in the dark, 

And they, invisibly within. 
Stand in their homes, and but the spark 

Of answer glovv^s where they had been. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 39 

And SO they cherish, and deceive, 

And do forget when we would know; 

And yet, O Love, before they leave. 
This is the air with them will go. 

They spread their hands, and move and stay, 
Finding the steps that thread the clouds; 

They stop, and vanish, and delay, 
And stand intent in splendid crowds. 

See how their burdened figures climb. 

Slowly with waiting, overhead, 
And then, like words that catch the rhyme. 

Rush out, in faster music led. 

We can not keep them : still they come. 
Refreshed from some unknown descent. 

And pale with longing far from home. 
And dazzled when they homewards went 

There is the movement of their gait. 
See, shall we hasten and entwine 

Our garments round the Winds that wait 
Impatient where the Stars decline? 

Lo, every ripple of the Sea 

Runs o'er the brink, and goes away, 



40 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Slips from its sleepless bed, and we, 
Also awake, gaze on, and stay. 

Look! Every name of Passion's there, 

And every glory that the Sun 
Saw done in any summer air 

Died out the road the Stars are on! 

And we remain: and still the Day 
Unseals his record from the Night, 

And scatters, like an heir, away 

His testament the Stars did write: — 

And all the riches hoarded by 

Dishonored fade, and he, the Sun, 

Reels up a flaring edge of sky 

And we — O Love, we've gone! we've gone! 



SONGS OF THE STARS 41 

THE DREAM SONG 



At last, at last, 
With wing in the wind. 

And wind in the depths of Heaven, 
And face in the flash of the Stars as they 
passed, 
And eyes where the Stars are Seven ; 
At last where the Moon, with its silver sphere. 
Swings swift round the Earth, and flies so near 
I laugh lest the men in the World should see 
The cold white Globe come threateningly. 

At last on the edge of the purple dark 

The whirl of my wings is free, 
And I chase at my will a great white spark 

That always appeared to me 
Like a flame cast into the Sky, and kept 

By something invisibly: 
Fast, fast through the lights, and the shadows 

and rain 
Of the Star-drops that disappear out in the 

plain 
I vanish, and faster forever I gain. 



42 SONGS OF THE STARS 

My love and myself at last in the Sky 
And its passionate sights of intensity; 
For I pant and I palpitate thinking of when 
I stood on the Earth and looked up at the 
Sky, 
And sighed for the beautiful Stars, that were 

then 
Dissevered and far in their mystery: 
O the trouble, and passion, and tears of the 

Day 
That spotted the Earth, in its dust of decay, 
That fiercely drank down of my sorrows 

alway: 
But I live by the Stars, and they flame and 

they fade 
Wherever my quest of desire is made. 
And never, since them, am I lost or afraid. 

But the Love of the Stars! O the atmosphere 
They kept from the Earth, and concealed 
in the Sky! 
When I loved on the Earth, my love was dear, 
And the kiss of the Earth was an alchemy; 
But the Stars, O the luminous Stars are where 
Love's never afraid, for his vesture there 
M^ill the lips never weave what the heart will 
not wear. 



SONGS OF THE STARS 43 

DANCING STARS 



I know not where, I know not where 

The Earth is round, and still 
The Stars will love the midnight air. 

And sparkling dance their fill; 
I know not where they glide away, 

Nor how they pass the Sea, 
And come again when tired Day 

Asks for their melody. 

I know not how their sweet embrace 

Is constant, and how true 
Each sees at morn the lovely face 

At eve each lover knew; 
I know not how they whirl and float 

So surely through the Sky, 
And never lose a moment's note 

In all the minstrelsy. 

I can not tell, and know not whose 

Eyes are enchanted there. 
Nor how the magic maidens choose 

Their steps into the air; 
I only know that weary lies 



44 SONGS OF THE STARS 

The daring of the Sun, 
Who murmurs while the wave replies — 
And still the Stars dance on! 



SONG OF THE ISLANDS IN THE SEA 



Shine on, you Stars, but know that we 

Are still the Islands in the Sea; 

We know you while you rise and bound 

From the dead underworld, and round 

Swift Heaven whirl on impatiently. 

Searching the Seas and shores where we 

Appearing keep serenity. 

We are the Islands of the Sea 

To sing you still forever home 

When you revisit us, and come 

From out the dreadful underdome 

With shadows on your slumbering eyes, 

And open them into our skies. 

Here we await on conquered Seas, 

Stretched under clouds that float like these, 

And here in quiet caverns shine 

Our faces, and those eyes of thine. 



L.of 



SONGS OF THE STARS 45 

Deep where the land lies under Sea 
The eyes of love pierce ardently: 
Who were the lovers would not meet 
In thoughts that tangle up the feet? 
And whose the lip tastes not the rose 
On lips, that from the bosom grows? 

We are the Islands of the Sea, 
And sound the World with melody: 
Why is it that there always stand 
Listening ashore along the land 
Poets, who strive to catch the glee 
That breaks adrift from Isles of Sea. 
We are the Queens of Song, who keep 
Courts on the circuits of the deep, 
And if our Songs should ever be 
Sung harsh, we send them over Sea, 
There, rippling scattered o'er the wave, 
They sweeter come than when we gave. 

The old, deep Sea draws down the weight 
Of sadness, and on palpitate 
The rhythms of our unknown air 
To land, and find the listeners there. 

As the swift Stars within the tide 
Of Heaven astream, we Islands glide 



46 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Voluptuous leagues of rounded Seas 
Caressed when Love can keenest please: 
When Dawn is young, and shyly breaks 
We lie await till rose-lip takes, 
And when adark the water steals 
The Sea-Isle thrills and conquest feels: 
O wind and blossom, Sun and smile. 
You reach us first on far-hung Isle, 
And still whatever Music strays 
Away, the sweetest ever stays. 

Why is it that the palms decline 
Softer a-sea than shore, are thine? 
Why is it that the fervid deep 
Refused our blossoming selves to keep. 
And, burst on struggles of the tide. 
We rose to Heaven, and lightly ride? 
Kept on the compass of the Sea 
We never know monotony, 
For cloud and Sun, and hungered breeze 
Blow ever through our floating trees, 
And ever, thirsting deep the taste 
Of flowers, for us the Sea-winds haste. 

We are the Islands of the Sun, 
The sweetest ever dreamed upon; 



SONGS OF THE STARS 47 

For Seas can dream, and lying there 
With all the midnight on the air, 
With all the Stars so very still, 
And all the clouds at rest, until 
There's nothing that could hear a Song— 
The waves in slumbering slip along. 
We are the Isles where color stays. 
And where the burnished stroke of days 
Rings on the gilded globe of Sun 
The echo of his numbers done: 
We are the Isles where sonnets gleam 
Down in the darkness of the stream, 
And while the Stars enchanted sing 
Sonnets flash up in answering. 

O Islands in the Purple Sea 

Fear not to drift on any shore, 
Nor ever fear exquisitely 

Thy Songs shall fade, and sound no more: 
Where would the eager lips of Day 

Ope in the morn, and where would rhyme 
Beat its delicious roundelay 

By any shores, if not on thine? 

Where would the tired Stars alight 

From the vast plains they're flying through. 
And, weary-winged, rest when the Night 



48 SONGS OF THE STARS 

Slips out beyond themselves and you? 
Couch of the Moon, and dream of Star, 

O Isles where all the World can rest, 
And all that journey by you are 

With secret of your parting blest. 

Ye are but magnets in the air 
Polished by glory of the Sun, 

Swung o'er the Seas, ye islands fair, 
To draw the eyes the Seas upon: 
To tempt the heart of all the shore 
Out into your uncertain tide, 

And lead all love that went before 
Still on, and gather more beside. 

We are the Isles where Music lies 

Almost unstrung, so very low 
Languish impulsive harmonies 

Into the faintest sounds they know: 
Where something keeps the strings apart, 

And all the passion playing there 
Is timid, that the very heart 

Of Love lies beating on the air! 

We are the Isles — not very far — 

Look on our bosoms bared for thee, 
Come, see our willing footsteps are 



SONGS OF THE STARS 49 

Imprinted pleading in the Sea; 
We watch the clouds that keep the shore, 

And sing the little sails afloat, 
And believing draw the shallops o'er 

Incessant, with our silvery note. 

Shine on, ye Stars, but always know 
Sea-Isles are waiting here below; 
Ye ply the paths of Heaven, and we 
Hold something shining in the Sea, 
In Heaven whenever you shall pass 
We keep your journey in the glass, 
Leagues of the Sea you come and go. 
And all your wanderings will we know. 

With arms entwined from shore to shore 

We glide, and singularly pour 

Mysterious passion of our Song 

On Souls that unto us belong; 

We signal, piercing to the eyes. 

And eagerly the helmsman plies 

His circles that shall sweep him near. 

And traffics swiftly over here. 

Lost to the land, forever gone. 
Never returned is anyone; 
And if their eyes shall ever be 



50 SONGS OF THE STARS 

With Stars reflecting in the Sea — 

And if their eyes shall ever gaze 

In Heaven, where still the starlight plays- 

And if their eyes should then forget, 

And vanish unforgotten, yet 

Still on their lips would lingering be 

The Songs they heard in Isles of Sea. 

We are the Isles of Sea, and twine 
Our passion into words divine — 
And still the Stars look on and shine. 



VOX HUMANA 



Chanting by the sunset. 

Singing in the dawn. 
Playing through the Heavens 

While the sails blow on. 
Dipping in the amethyst 

Effusions of the sky 
The temper of our instruments 

As close the shades go by; 
Striking from the gentled chords 

Every bewildering note 
That haunted all the happy sounds 



SONGS OF THE STARS 5 1 

That every Poet wrote, 
Watching the clouds caught in the strings 

Break into melody, 
And scatter through the atmosphere, 

And drop into the Sea; 
Floating the music up and down 

Where every ripple blows, 
We are the Singers of the air, 
And watch it where it goes. 
We see it tangle in the Stars 

And die into the night, 
And hear the laughter of the Souls 

Who passed it in delight, 
We see them stop, as, one by one. 

They turn, listening again, 
And hear, bearing our strings away. 

Their anxious sighs of pain: 
We sow the secret of our Songs 

Far out into the Sky, 
And eagerly the blossoms blow 

About the country high. 
And we, inclined upon the Winds, 

Chant in the scented air, 
And all the World is still to catch 
The hidden Singers there. 



52 SONGS OF THE STARS 

THE VANISHED SONG 



Idly afloat on Seas of Rhyme, 

With sails in slumber on the air, 
And eyes that watch the careless time 

Beating monotonously there, 
Silent, alone on a lost Sea, 

Far from the Sun, afar from Shore, 
And far from Stars that dimly be 

Still far from where the Stars are more. 

Forever lulled, forever heard 

The sounds that colors bring the Wave, 
Forever waiting, never word 

From me, for everything they gave. 
Doomed into silence, undismayed 

Indulgence from the helpless Seas 
To fathom, and to see betrayed 

Secrets to scatter when I please. 
Shall I return, and Music bring? 

Deceive the wandering Stars and steal 
Back while their lips enchanted ring. 

And in the Sun their Songs reveal? — 
When I go back, if in my eyes 

The Songs of Stars are hovering. 
They fall unspoken, and there lies 

Silence on me, although they sing. 



DEC 12 1904 



